Title: Thermally activated building elements for cooling

Authors: A. Can, E. Buyruk, M. Kucuk

Addresses: Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Mechanical Engineering Department, Trakya University, 22030 Edirne, Turkey. ' Faculty of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering Department, Cumhuriyet University 58140, Sivas, Turkey. ' Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Mechanical Engineering Department, Trakya University, 22030 Edirne, Turkey

Abstract: This study presents a new model for the cooling of buildings. It introduces some applications of this model that are designed, constructed and tested. Experimental results show that this model could be applied easily, it could save considerable energy and helps in protecting the environment. In the present paper, numerical and experimental studies were carried out for space cooling application. For this purpose, an experimental module was built and water flow rates, surface temperatures and water inlet and outlet temperatures were measured. The calculated heat transfer rates from experimental data were compared with two different numerical methods that were well comparable. The numerical methods used were finite difference method and finite element method.

Keywords: space cooling; buildings; finite element method; FEM; finite difference method; FDM; capillary tubes; energy savings; heat transfer; thermal activation; building elements; simulation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJETM.2005.006506

International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management, 2005 Vol.5 No.1, pp.42 - 59

Published online: 17 Mar 2005 *

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